Chapter 365： The value of Cuban nickel mines

Wiltz strictly followed Marlin's "Handbook of Laterite Nickel Processing" to obtain large amounts of nickel oxide and sulfuric acid.

After nickel oxide is produced, it will be shipped to Cape Breton Island and further refined into nickel metal. Then, when smelting stainless steel, add ferrochromium alloy, remelting and smelting in the reverberatory furnace, and further remove impurities.

Of course, nickel metal can also be melted and mixed with copper to become white copper pretending to be silver-for Marin, who is good at counterfeiting, white copper is definitely the top grade for casting counterfeit coins ...

As for sulfuric acid, its use is also very wide. First of all, it can be used to make copper sulfate and zinc sulfate-these two are simple pesticides that are easily available, which can greatly reduce the pests and diseases of crops. Although no chemical pesticides of later generations are highly toxic and have good effects, they are not as harmful as those of highly toxic pesticides such as cyanides in later generations.

For Marin, copper sulfate, zinc sulfate, lime sulfur mixture and plant pesticides (mainly pyrethrum solution), these are simple and easily available pesticides. Moreover, because copper sulfate and zinc sulfate produce more than pyrethrum, they can become mainstream pesticides.

In addition, sulfuric acid can also be used to produce nitric acid, promote the development of chemical science, and even allow Marin to make nitrocellulose (smokeless powder).

There is another use, which Marin accidentally thought of-that is, it can be used to engage in optical glass ...

The raw material quartz sand for glass production often contains various impurities. Among them, the impurity that most affects the performance of glass is iron ions.

In the presence of iron ions, the glass will turn green, affecting the transmittance and reducing the quality of the glass. The Venetians came up with a method of using pyrolusite to neutralize iron ions and reduce the green color of the glass. However, the glass treated in this way has a good early light transmittance. But for a long time, the glass will appear purple. Moreover, this physical "decolorization" method will reduce the "transmittance" of light, so it is not suitable for optical glass.

Marin I saw such a method of making optical glass in the past—that is, pickling quartz sand ...

The so-called pickled quartz sand is to use sulfuric acid or hydrochloric acid, or even use aqua regia to soak the quartz sand powder to remove impurities in the quartz sand.

Quartz sand is insoluble in acid, but iron ions, including some other metal ions, are basically soluble in acid. After pickling, the iron ions are dissolved and dissolved in the acid solution. In this way, the content of iron ions in the quartz sand is suppressed very low.

Moreover, all kinds of other metal ions are also washed away by acid. The glass made from this pure quartz sand has high purity and strong light transmission.

What is this optical glass used for? Nonsense, of course, used to make telescopes ...

At present, the telescope used by Marin's men, the Army model, can only see things within 5 kilometers, and further away, it is directly blurred. The same is true at sea, where green glass affects the telescope.

Cleaning the powdered quartz sand with sulfuric acid will reduce the content of iron ions in the quartz sand to the greatest extent possible. Of course, the main point is that the quartz sand needs to be finely ground, so that the iron ions wrapped in the quartz sand can fully avoid the fate of being pickled. Of course, even if it is very finely ground, it is difficult to avoid the situation of little iron ions remaining. After all, even if a steel mill is used to grind hard, the quartz sand cannot be ground into an atomic state. But as long as it is ground into powder and pickled again, it is more than enough to make advanced optical telescopes.

The telescope lens manufactured using this method will achieve the strongest light transmission, comparable to what is called "Russian military telescope" in later generations. In this way, it is more convenient for spies and investigators to obtain enemy intelligence. In naval battles, the commander can more easily determine the number of artillery on the enemy ship, and even estimate the relevant caliber ...

In short, with sulfuric acid, quartz sand can be pickled, the best optical glass and the best telescope can be made, and the reconnaissance ability of the scouts under Marin's command ...

...

Therefore, Malin has developed huge nickel mines in Cuba, and the harvest is huge. Not to mention the nickel produced, it can be used to smelt stainless steel, can also be used to make white copper, used to forge silver, and make fake silver coins. If the silver content of the European silver coin is high, it is relatively soft, and the white copper is too hard to distinguish. However, at this time, the European "silver coin" has a high hardness because of its high copper content. Therefore, counterfeit coins made of white copper are actually more difficult to distinguish ...

The lateritic nickel ore reserves in Cuba are very large, which are one million tons. Marin is ready to flood Europe with fake silver coins made of white copper ...

Sulfuric acid, a by-product of processing laterite nickel ore, is also widely used. Whether it is optical glass or pesticides such as copper sulfate and zinc sulfate, for Marin, it is a very practical thing.

You ask me how to produce copper sulfate and zinc sulfate? Copper is indeed difficult to dissolve in dilute sulfuric acid, but which fool told you to use copper and sulfuric acid to produce copper sulfate? Is it enough to use high-purity copper ore? Whether it is copper oxide or other compounds of copper, they are soluble in sulfuric acid ... As for zinc sulfate, it is simpler. The crude zinc ingot scraped from the cooling tube wall of the smelting furnace is directly thrown into sulfuric acid ...

Then, the crystals of copper sulfate and zinc sulfate are purified, packed in oil paper bags and sealed, and then can be transported to various places as pesticides. When you need to use it, unpack it directly, dissolve it in water in proportion, and spray directly with a sprayer ...

As for how to make the sprayer? Is this a problem? In a few minutes, Marin could copy out an artificial sprayer carried on the farmer's uncle afterwards, which was used for pesticide application ... After all, the Marlin family in the later generations used a bunch of artificial sprayers. When Marin was a child in his previous life, he often dismantled and discarded agricultural sprayers to play with, so don't be too familiar with its structure.

...

Wiltz found the laterite nickel ore, although it is a great achievement, but it can only be regarded as the completion of the first phase of the mission ...

In the second stage, Wiltz needed to find the chromite with a legendary reserve of one million tons in the mountains near Moa ...

However, at this stage, the difficulty is a bit big. Because Marin can't tell what the chromite looks like ~ www.novelhall.com ~ Unlike the laterite nickel ore, the color is red and red, just calcinate it and see if it smells of SO2. Some are nickel sulfide, and the one with no taste is red iron ore, simple and rough ...

Because I do n’t know what the chromite looks like, I need Wiltz to find this ore. Anyway, all kinds of ore are used for smelting. If iron is smelted, you have to give it a try to see if it is easy to rust. If it is not easy to rust under high-temperature water vapor environment, it is likely to be chromite ...

Therefore, searching for chromite is more difficult than searching for laterite nickel ore. Not only do you need to find iron ore that you do n’t know, but you must also smelt the ore and test it in a high-temperature steam environment for a long time before you can finally determine whether it is chromite.

And if chromite is found, then stainless steel can come out smoothly ...

For this, Marin gave a high reward reward-found that the nickel ore is just an ordinary non-hereditary jazz. And discovered chromite, directly upgraded to hereditary jazz, became aristocratic family ... If the contribution is huge, the baron can expect ...

Therefore, after the mining and processing of the nickel ore was settled, Wiltz once again took a large group of people and went to the mountains to find chromite ore under the protection of a large number of locals hired with salt and food ...